On Monday, the Supreme Court denied certiorari in Patrick Tate Adamiak’s case. His only hope remains a June resentencing or a presidential pardon.
Mr. Adamiak was a decorated Navy sailor who served as a Petty Officer 1st Class (E-6, Master-at-Arms). He was slated for BUD/S training to become a Navy SEAL. In 2016, he started a side business selling firearm parts and military surplus on GunBroker.com and his own website, Black Dog Arsenal. He rose to one of the top 500 dealers on GunBroker, generating over $10,000 in legal sales per month. He never sold functional firearms or National Firearms Act (NFA) items.
In late 2021, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) started an investigation into Adamiak after a paid informant (facing his own charges) told the ATF that Adamiak was selling machine guns. The paid confidential informant hired Adamiak to broker a deal between a GunBroker seller and an undercover ATF agent. Mr. Adamiak sold the undercover agent cut-up/demilled receivers (e.g., PPSh-41, PPS-43, Thompson) and other parts. The parts were cut with a bandsaw and not a torch. The ATF claimed that these cuts were insufficient to render the items inert.
On April 7, 2022, the ATF and more than 40 law enforcement officers raided Adamiak’s Virginia Beach home. The agents seized demilled machine gun parts (e.g., cut-up WWII-era kits), inert anti-tank missile launchers, and other non-functional replicas or display items. None of the items were functional, but to the ATF, it did not matter.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Biden administration indicted the young sailor. They charged him with receiving and possessing unregistered firearms, possessing and transferring machine guns, and possessing unregistered destructive devices. Prosecutors claimed he dealt in illegal machine guns online. The ATF rebuilt each gun to prove it was a machine gun. For an RPG, the ATF welded closed the holes cut in the tube and added a trigger pack to make it functional. Gun owners viewed it as the definition of overreach.
A jury convicted him, and in June 2023, he received a 20-year sentence (with a projected release around 2042). He has been held at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey.
After unsuccessful appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and a denial of certiorari from the Supreme Court, his only hope is a resentencing hearing in June or a presidential pardon. The case is fraught with problems. None of the items was functional; the informant was desperate to reduce his own charges; and, most importantly, his case might violate double jeopardy.
Petty Officer Adamiak was charged with receiving and possessing an unregistered firearm (primarily a PPSh-type machine gun) in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d) (National Firearms Act), and possessing and transferring a machine gun in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(o). He received 10 years on each charge, but both charges were identical, meaning he was sentenced twice for the same crime.
The 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d) charge was for having an unregistered NFA firearm. Since the passage of the Hughes Amendment in 1986, it has been impossible to add any machine guns to the registry. The items that Adamiak had—in the ATF’s eyes—were machine guns, which were impossible to register. This means he was charged with violating a law he could not comply with.
The second charge was a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(o), which is the same offense under the Hughes Amendment. Adamiak should never have been charged with both. In fact, the United States Attorney’s Manual forbids the DOJ from charging defendants with both. This contradiction leads directly to double jeopardy, which violates Petty Officer Adamiak’s constitutionally protected rights.
The manual reads: “Section 922(o) of Title 18 makes it unlawful to transfer or possess a machinegun made after May 19, 1986. In addition, under the NFA, it is unlawful to manufacture or possess a machine gun without first registering it with the Secretary of the Treasury and paying applicable taxes. 26 U.S.C. §§ 5822, 5861. As a result of the enactment of 18 U.S.C. § 922(o), the Secretary of the Treasury no longer will register or accept any tax payments to make or transfer a machinegun made after May 19, 1986. Accordingly, because it is impossible to comply with the registration and taxation provisions in the NFA, prosecutors should charge the unlawful possession or transfer of a machinegun made after May 19, 1986, under § 922(o).”
Since the charges never should have been filed, his sentence should be significantly reduced at resentencing in June. It is also a smoking gun pointing to a political prosecution rather than one in the name of public safety. The U.S. Attorney’s Manual isn’t something federal prosecutors never consult.
According to AmmoLand News sources inside the DOJ, the charges had to go through multiple levels of approval before they could be levied against the defendant. It is much more likely that the Biden-era Justice Department intentionally ignored the guidelines than that extreme incompetence caused the failure to consult them. It is believed that the DOJ and ATF wanted to send a message to other sellers by getting the harshest sentence possible, even if that meant locking away for decades a person who dedicated their life to defending the country from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
None of the items Adamiak had were ever traced to any crimes. The items that led to Adamiak’s arrest were brokered between an ATF informant and an ATF agent. The destructive device was demilled and purchased at a California flea market. These charges appear to be trumped up to set an example.
This case was prosecuted under the Biden DOJ. A sailor who dedicated his life to the defense of liberty has had his freedom stolen. If the Trump administration wants to prove that it is different from the anti-gun Biden regime, then it should fix the injustice that has stripped Petty Officer Patrick Tate Adamiak of his freedom. It is time to free him and let him rebuild his life.
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About John Crump
Mr. Crump is an NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people from all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons, follow him on X at @right2bear, or at www.crumpy.com.
That’s effed up. How are we uninfluential low-lifes supposed to have confidence in a system that touts “justice for all” and “equal application under the law”?
More proof the Roberts court is scared of #2A cases. Sure, we have Heller & Bruen. Those are outliers. I have less than zero faith in SCOTUS &/or our government as a whole.